Wolf And Sickness
by momoxtoshiro
Summary: Self explanatory, is it not? LawrencexHoro fluff. You have been warned ;3 Enjoy! written before I knew there was an OVA sorry I'm stupid...


**Heya! :3 As soon as I finished watching Spice&Wolf's anime, I just couldn't resist writing a little something for it. For such a popular series, I'm surprised it doesn't have many fanfics though :(  
Also just as a quick note, I watched the series in Japanese and thus have Horo call Lawrence 'Master' as they did in the subtitled version I found. Just sayin'. So don't flame me plz. Anyways ****I tried to keep them as IC as possible.**

**Oh and also sorry! I had no idea there was an OVA where this already happened until after I posted this and Cloner told me ^^; so sorry. I feel like an idiot now...**

**Oh well. Enjoy anyway?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Spice&Wolf :**

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Wolf And Sickness

This was embarrassing.

Pure humiliation.

Honestly, who had ever heard of a guardian wolf spirit getting sick anyway?

It was absurd, a farce, a complete and total lie; it just _was not possible_.

And yet, it was.

Horo was curled up in bed, rolled into somewhat of a ball, the white tip of her fluffy, auburn tail protruding from the blankets and dangling off the side of the bed. She felt almost numb, or rather, she felt as though all she could do for the rest of her extremely extended life was flop around on this mattress from side to side slowly like a carp on the shore. She groaned at least once every minute, but usually more often than that.

"Uuhh…" she moaned, rolling onto her other side for the umpteenth time that hour and pulling the covers up to her shoulders. "Ever since yesterday…Damn. Even though Master brought me to the nearest inn as soon as he noticed me shivering…" she trailed off with a sigh, shifting again. Her stomach felt completely vacant, her head felt as though it was filled with cotton and her limbs seemed to be made of syrup.

Even her tail, the soft, top-notch fur, her pride and joy, the reason behind her identity…even that was ruffled and shaken by the cold winds that blasted through the town beyond the shutters of the windows. Her ears were still cold, as though the frost had frozen there the previous night.

Flipping over again, she stared dejectedly at Lawrence's vacant bed across the room. Her ears drooped as she was reminded that he had gone out to proceed with business. Even though she had beseeched him with her eyes to stay, and even though she could easily tell that he wanted to stay with her with every fiber of his being, she had told him to go for the sake of his work. She could tell that it pained him to leave her alone like that, and she had been able to smile a tiny bit at how cute he had been; even remembering it now, a small smirk crossed her lips. And as he had left her, she could hear his footsteps running at top speed for as long as four buildings over before she had fallen into a light, drowsy sleep.

Yet even after that, she did not feel rested in the slightest, in fact she felt even more tired. Her vision seemed fuzzier than her tail as she rolled onto her back to stare at the ceiling for several moments before turning one more time into her original position, clutching the blankets to her chest tightly, as though for dear life. "Mater told me to try and get some rest..." She mumbled to herself. "I'm tryiiiing!" she wailed at the wall she was facing.

Her tail twitched in annoyance, mainly at the fact that she was lying there not being of any assistance to her companion whatsoever; she hated not being able to do anything; she could not even _eat_, let alone move around.

She sighed heavily into her pillow, and squeezing her eyes shut, she listened to the noises of the town around her. There were not many people out and about considering the weather, and aside from a few whinnies of horses and some idle chatter of a few brave citizens, all other noises were more or less drowned out by the sound of the howling winds. Horo stilled her restless body and concentrated her sense of hearing, trying to zero in on the particular pair of footsteps she was searching for.

At last her ears twitched as she recognized the pattern of his footsteps, and a tiny smile formed on her lips. "Master…" she whispered.

Her mood got increasingly better from then on as she listened to the direction of the noise until he was standing right outside their inn. He came slowly up the stairs before entering the room cautiously.

"Horo." His deep voice was soft and cautionary, as though he did not want to wake her if she had, by some chance, been asleep. The girl slowly flipped back over to face him, her limp tail flitting slightly and her ears perked in delight.

"Master." She rasped with a small grin. The 25-year-old merchant held a plate in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.

"Ah sorry. Did I wake you?" he wondered, closing the door with his foot and walking over to her bedside.

"Of course not; how could I sleep like this anyway?" she asked with a pout. She groggily pushed herself up into a sitting position and inclined her head toward his hands. "What's that?" She flicked one ear in interest.

"Ah this? I just picked it up in town; since it's so cold out recently, they've been selling a lot of them cheaply."

"I didn't ask _where _you got it. I asked _what_ it was." She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. However, she could not stop her tail from swishing back and forth in excitement as the familiar scent finally wafted to her nose.

"Apple pie." Lawrence announced proudly.

"What? Really? I thought my nose was just playing tricks on me!" she squealed in delight as her stomach growled as if on cue. He handed the plate to her and placed the glass on the wooden table beside her bed. Eagerly, Horo removed the cover on the plate to reveal an entire, warm, fresh pie staring back at her. "You got me a full one?" she gasped.

"Of course." The man chuckled. "I knew just one slice wouldn't be enough to satisfy you."

"But…" she hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words, her head feeling blurry again. "What about you, Master?"

"I ate plenty before. Now you enjoy." He insisted, sitting down on his bed.

"Hm." She smirked. "You sure know how to win me over, don't you?" then she sighed. "I suppose males are good for _some_ things from time to time."

"I suppose so." He agreed with a grin.

"Agreeing with me?" she wondered. "Hm. Smart boy." And with that, she began digging into the warm meal.

"Boy?" he scoffed to himself as he fondly watched her eat.

After the state he had seen her in the previous night, seeing her so lively and like her old self again was refreshing and relaxing.

However, the smile he wore soon fell after merely a moment when his companion ceased her vigorous eating. Without warning, she simply let her hand fall from her mouth and drop into her lap with an enormous exhale that made it sound as though she had just surfaced from drowning. "H-Horo?" The merchant quickly stood to his feet and rushed to her side. "What's wrong?"

"I…I don't know." She mumbled miserably, looking down at her plate; only a small fraction of the apple pie was missing. "I'm just…not hungry." She told him. "I mean, I _felt _hungry before, but as soon as I swallowed, I felt as though I could never eat again." With a troubled expression on his face, Lawrence covered the remaining pie and placed it on the table. Horo stared sadly at the wine and food there. "What a waste." She sighed. "I'm sorry. You spent good money on-"

"Idiot. That's the least of our worries right now." His misty blue eyes were clouded with concern and Horo felt her face become hot. She felt extremely self-conscious now with him hovering over her like that. He reached his hand down toward her, but on instinct she smacked it away without even meaning to.

"Ah. S-Sorry." She recoiled her hand to her chest, her ears flattening in repentance.

"No, _I'm_ sorry." Lawrence corrected; he should have known better than to try and go randomly touching her whenever he liked when she was in such a vulnerable state. He tried again, slower this time as not to startle her, even though she knew it was coming now. Pressing the back of his hand against her forehead, he kept it there for several seconds before pulling back. "You're getting a fever." He stated grimly.

"W-WHAT?" she shrieked. "H-_How_? How can _I_ get a fever? How can I get sick? H-How could this-?" she swayed, trailing off her sentence as her vision suddenly blurred again, worse than before.

"H-Hey! Don't push yourself!" Lawrence shot forward and steadied her in his arms. His eyes widened at the difference of her appearance of what it had been merely seconds ago. Sweat was beginning to bead her forehead and her breathing was ragged and uneven as she gasped shallowly for breath, her eyes loosely closed. "Horo?" Panic rose in his deep tone. _Damn. If she's never experienced sickness before, than her body has no resilience toward it now. Even for someone like her, this could end up being really bad…_

His rapid thoughts were cut off as the girl in his arms coughed harshly, a noise that sounded to painfully force its way from her lungs and out her throat. She then began to tremble; everything was happening all at once and the merchant had not the slightest idea of what to do for a good moment before he gathered his bearings and composure. "Horo! Can you hear me?" he asked desperately.

Her reply was a pitiful sound, like the whimper of a dog on the side of the street during a rainstorm that was beaten half to death; it was so pathetic it nearly brought tears to his eyes, even though mere moments before she had been eating and speaking normally.

Knowing her response to his question had been ambiguous, she tried again with nearly the same painful results, though he could tell this time that her answer was affirmative. If she had been able to, he was sure she would have snapped something along the lines of "Of _course_ I can hear you, fool!" and twitched her highly receptive ears.

"I'm going to get you some water. I'll be right back." He swore.

But as he laid her gently back down on the bed and began heading toward the door, her weak, tentative hand reached out like it had countless times before, and grasped his sleeve with uncertain, shaky fingers. He turned around, readying himself to inform her that his actions would be for her benefit, but the second he made eye contact with those familiar, apple-red irises, all previous thoughts of leaving her dissipated like dewdrops in a desert. _What am I doing?_ He asked himself. _How could I leave her, even for a second?_

Resolved, he took a seat on the edge of her bed and carefully uncurled her fingers from his sleeve and clasped his warm hands over hers to find that she was unnaturally cold, for a _human_, let alone for a furred, cold-resistant _wolf_.

The next thing to come to his mind was to call for a doctor, but his senses quickly returned to him as he realized that was probably one of the worst options in this situation unless he could somehow lop off her ears and tail.

In the end, all he could do was look down at her and murmur her name. Her stunning eyes fought desperately to stay open and this troubled Lawrence greatly; he wanted to tell her to get some rest, but also feared the possibility of those eyes never opening again afterwards. "Here," he said at last. "You need some fluids at least." She nodded in agreement and tried to push herself up, yet her arms seemed too weak to do so.

Lawrence supported her back with one hand and offered her the glass of wine with the other. Despite her best efforts, Horo soon collapsed all of her weight onto his support and lay nearly limp in his arms. "Drink." He pleaded, holding the glass to her lips. He tipped it toward her until she gradually drained it in its entirety before placing the empty glass back on the table. Then, he gingerly laid her back down on the mattress and stroked her head between her ears.

A moment later, he rose again and walked to the other side of the room. Horo's eyes followed him and she opened her mouth to try and call him back, but to no avail. She despaired at the thought of his absence but soon relaxed a little when she realized he had no intentions to leave.

Removing the blankets from his own bed, Lawrence brought the extra covers back to her and laid them over her shivering form. She gave a small smile, opening her mouth to attempt to thank him, but he simply placed a finger over her lips and nodded in acknowledgment and comprehension.

Reaching forward again, he stroked her ears soothingly, exactly the way she liked it. "Get some sleep." He decided it would be better to have her rest than stay up all night suffering. Yet she fought to keep her eyes open, and he knew it was because she suspected that he might leave her if she did in fact fall into slumber.

But his reassuring strokes on her ears were too perfect, too calming too wonderfully soothing to keep her eyes open any longer and she finally had to close them, letting herself be overwhelmed by the steady motions that she could not help but feel blissful from. She sighed lightly as a tiny smile crossed her lips again; Lawrence was finally at ease now as he continued his patting motions. _I wonder if she's even being serious about this sickness. She could just be toying with me to get the attention…but then again, would she really go to such lengths for something as trivial as comfort?_ He debated briefly in his mind before he felt a little flick on his hand and gazed down to find his eyes being met with apple-red.

"Just now…" she rasped. "You were thinking that I was faking all of this, weren't you?"

"Well you seem to be talking just fine miraculously after I started scratching your ears." He noted.

"Fool." She huffed. "Do you really think I would lie about something like this? Me? The wise sage Horo?"

He was going to say that he would not put it past her to, but seeing her lying there completely helpless and panting for breath, he simply could not bring himself to do so. _Either she's sick, or she's got me wrapped completely around her finger. Twice._

"Three times."

"What?" he looked up.

"Nothing." She muttered. "Just talking to myself."

Then she coughed once. Lawrence immediately tensed but her small, pale hand rested on his sleeve as a sign to be at ease. "I'm okay." She whispered earnestly.

He stared into her reassuring eyes for a moment before accepting her conviction. He then grasped her exposed hand but found that she was still uncannily cold.

"Horo, you-" he stopped mid-sentence and she looked up at him in confusion. To confirm his theory, Lawrence gently placed a hand on the layer of blankets atop his companion; surely enough, there was space in between the covers and her body. Quickly, he grasped the sheets and yanked them off of her, and the girl yelped in surprise at his unexpected actions.

"M-Master, what are you-?" but she then realized she had been found out.

Lawrence's eyes were wide with shock before they hardened in anger.

Beneath the covers, Horo was shivering violently, her small body quivering like a leaf in a hurricane; as he had assumed, she had left a space of air between herself and the blankets so that he would not be able to tell that she was shuddering in such a condition.

"Horo!" He barked angrily and she flinched visibly, curling her body into a ball and shielding herself with her tail, still shivering. Then, Lawrence sighed and gathered his composure again. _What am I doing?_ He asked himself once more. It looked as though _he _was the wolf and she was a rabbit he intended to slaughter, curled up like that. "Horo." His voice was softer this time, the change in his tone from a moment ago severe enough to have the girl blink open her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked in a husky whisper, slowly pulling the blankets back on top of her. She was still shaking, and what was worse, he had frightened her enough in his rage to bring her to tears.

"B-Because…you'd already done so much…" she choked.

"Idiot."

Slowly he stood again and walked to the opposite side of the bed. Horo was still so shaken from the prior incident that she did not even feel him slide under the covers next to her until she felt his warm arms embracing her from behind. She jumped at his touch and he wondered when exactly he had become such a fool. "Come here." He pulled her toward him by the shoulders first before wrapping his arm around her small waist. Then, slowly, she obeyed and obediently turned onto her other side to face him.

"You fool." She whispered as he smiled and wiped away the tears from her cheeks. "The first time we share a bed and it's like this."

"Still able to crack jokes, are we?"

"I never said I was joking." She murmured with a small smirk back at him.

"Oh, you..." he sighed, pulling her in closer until she was pressed up against him. He could feel her trembling still, and wrapped his arms around her fully. Then, as though she had just been set free from some curse that held in all her chills, she broke down shivering against him like nothing she had ever experienced before. "Horo…you were this cold?" he hugged her tighter still, feeling her rapid little heart beating furiously against her ribcage.

After several moments, her shivering came to an end and she relaxed completely against him.

"Ah. This is how it should always be." She murmured, laying her tail across both their hips.

"I'll make note of that." He promised a bit sarcastically. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"A little."

Lawrence leaned forward and kissed her forehead quickly, causing her to blush madly.

"How about now?"

"F-Fool! Now you'll just think I have a fever aga-" she cut off when her jaws parted, forming a grand yawn. The merchant chuckled and the wolf pouted.

"Come on now. Get some rest." He pulled her in again, one hand on her head and the other on her waist.

"Yes, yes." She answered dismissively. "But Master you…" she halted.

"What?"

"You'll…stay here, right?" she asked.

In response, he leaned down and pecked her lips.

"Of course."

She buried her face in his shirt to hide her blush and wrapped her arms around him.

"Good night." She whispered.

"Good night."

Though he found it odd how she was suddenly better, he let himself believe that the cure to a wolf's sickness was the comfort of a human.

He rested his chin in between her ears and listened to her soft, steady breathing, closing his eyes and letting it lull him to sleep.

Never before had either one been so grateful to a cold Winter day.

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**A/N: And there you have it! I really do hope you enjoyed it! As I warned you, there was plenty of fluff, no? X3 Well, did I do a good job on this first attempt? Lemme know :3**

**Please review!**


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